Blair: Black community must oppose gangs

Paul Erhahon: Teen arrested

By John Steele, Crime Correspondent

12:01AM BST 12 Apr 2007

Black communities must speak out against the gang culture that leads to gun and knife crime "killing black kids", Tony Blair said yesterday, as he promised toughened laws to tackle the ring-leaders of the violence.

The Prime Minister, speaking after a series of murders of young people, said such "severe disorder" was not a symptom of a wider social problem. It was a matter of individuals who needed to be "taken out of circulation" through legislation, police work and denunciation within the culprits' own communities.

He told an audience in Cardiff that tackling violence was the "missing dimension" to an otherwise successful regeneration of Britain's cities. Delivering the Callaghan Memorial Lecture, Mr Blair said: "In respect of knife and gun gangs, the laws need to be significantly toughened.

"There needs to be an intensive police focus on these groups. The ringleaders need to be identified and taken out of circulation; if very young, as some are, put in secure accommodation.

Related Articles

"The black community - the vast majority of whom in these communities are decent, law-abiding people horrified at what is happening - need to be mobilised in denunciation of this gang culture that is killing innocent young black kids. But we won't stop this by pretending it isn't young black kids doing it."

Mr Blair's assertion that the problem is primarily within the black communities in London and other cities accords with the view of senior police officers but is in sharp contrast to one of his own Home Office ministers, Lady Scotland.

She recently told the home affairs select committee: "We accept there is an increasing problem of the use of guns and we are trying to address it. We have not had any evidence that this issue is solely or disproportionately an issue for black young men.''

Mr Blair said the nation was "in danger of completely misunderstanding" the nature of the problem as a social malaise. "More and more I think this is not just wrong but misleading; I mean literally misleading us in the wrong direction.

"In truth, most young people are perfectly decent and law abiding, more likely to be victims than perpetrators of crime. Most families are not dysfunctional. Most people, even in the hardest communities, are content to play fairly and by the rules. Most young black boys are not involved in knife and gun gangs."

A spokesman for the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) said: "The Prime Minister is right, this is a serious problem and it isn't going away. We shouldn't be afraid to talk about this issue for fear of sounding prejudiced.

"Action needs to be taken now to prevent the needless deaths of more young black boys. Unfortunately, it comes as no surprise that some young black men are becoming involved in gang cultures and criminal activities. They do so because they feel that they have no choice and no future. As a society we are failing young black kids."

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "We welcome the Prime Minister's sentiment that gang leaders need to be targeted, but after 10 years in power and just weeks before Tony Blair steps down, the public will wonder why it has taken so long for him to speak up."

Scotland Yard said yesterday that a 15-year-old boy had been arrested in connection with the murder of 14-year-old Paul Erhahon, who was stabbed to death in east London at the weekend. Two boys, aged 13 and 14, have been charged with the murder. They have also been charged with the attempted murder and grievous bodily harm of a 15-year-old friend of Paul who is recovering in hospital.

Paul was the latest of a number of youths under the age of 16 to be killed in London since the end of January. There have been violent "youth-on-youth" attacks in other cities. Paul attended the same school as 15-year-old Adam Regis, the nephew of an Olympic sprinter, who was stabbed to death last month.